


the guy who made sure no one came back with a cold

by sea_level



Category: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Kaiju, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Contains no actual time travel, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Secret Relationship, Tendo Choi (Brief Appearance)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-20
Updated: 2018-07-20
Packaged: 2019-06-13 09:21:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15361299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sea_level/pseuds/sea_level
Summary: Newt and Hermann work together in the Research and Development department of Pan Pacific, trying to lay out the foundation for building a time machine.





	the guy who made sure no one came back with a cold

**Author's Note:**

> & here's the other time travel fic that i like better, probably because the au seems less outlandish. Also it actually does the secret relationship like I was supposed to.
> 
> It's more about Newt navigating the space that he's in than...actually making a time machine. I hope you enjoy it!

The guided tour comes into the lab at 11:34 AM, as usual. They first shuffle around the unoccupied part of the lab—the side where all the blueprints and early designs are--the things that really get the prospective donors ooh-ing and ahh-ing. Then, Pentecost leads them, slowly but surely, to the other side of the room where they can look at Hermann’s chalkboards filled with math that they can’t possibly understand (but still stare at in amazement). This, of course, always leads to someone asking why Newt even belongs there in the first place. After all, what could a time travel lab possibly want with a _Biologist_?

Pentecost directs the crowd to Newt's side of the lab and gives him the look that means, "Introduce yourself."

“I’m—“ he begins, but that’s as far as he can get before Hermann interrupts him with a, “Dr. Newton Geiszler,” so that he doesn’t call himself Newt in front of the millionaires.

“Yep,” Newt continues, “That’s me. I’m the head of the biological research division at this Pan Pacific branch.”

“Biological research?” someone asks. Pentecost’s stern squint is _very_ easy to decipher.

“I’m responsible for making sure that living things can use our time machine without, y’know—“ going kablooey, Newt thinks “—any negative side effects.”

It’s pretty obvious that this isn’t exactly exciting for the tour group. Newt doesn’t expect it to be. It hadn’t wowed any of the fiftysomething previous groups.

“I’m also working on a set of immunizations so that our future time travelers won’t have to worry about contracting or bringing back any deadly diseases,” Newt offers.

A murmur goes through the crowd. It’s something they didn’t think about before, and precious few do, but in due time they’re nodding, content that the problem is solved before they’ve even had sufficient time to worry about it. It’s enough of a win, though it’s kind of lame that he’ll probably get recognized as the guy who made sure no one came back with a cold instead of the guy who literally stopped people from exploding in transit each time they might make a jump in their hypothetical future time machine.

He’s coming in third place to antiquated blueprints and complicated squiggles on a chalkboard. Newt didn’t even think it was possible to be this uncool when he’s literally working for a company that’s trying to travel through time.

* * *

Hermann pushes Newt up against the wall and has his lips on Newt’s so quickly that it takes Newt almost a minute for him to choke out, “Corridor.”

“Ah,” Hermann says, blinking and looking around as if he’d somehow forgotten they were in public and that if they didn’t keep their relationship a secret they likely wouldn’t be able to work together anymore. As much as Newt loves Hermann, he does _not_ want to go back to Siberia.

Hermann awkwardly adjusts Newt’s collar with a look in his eye so fond that Newt can’t really hold anything against him. “We will meet at my place,” he says, and turns around, walking down the hall with such an air of professionalism that the slight crinkle in his shirt all but magically disappears as Newt watches him leave.

Right. Hermann’s place. Newt jams his hand into his pocket to locate his keys and makes a dash for the parking garage.

* * *

Newt’s in the middle of poring through a massive spreadsheet filled with ice core data that it had taken him weeks to get ahold of when Hermann comes over with a large box in his arms. Great. It’s probably some sort of tweak to the structural design of the time machine that’s going to drastically change the interior conditions during shift. He’s gonna have to fix his model _again_.

Except that it isn’t. When Hermann gets within comfortable talking distance, Newt catches a nice whiff of whatever’s in the box.

“I ran into a problem regarding the power leakage problem, and I reasoned it was about time for a rest," Hermann says. “You’ve been staring at that spreadsheet for four hours now, so I figured you could use a break too.”

A part of Newt wants to protest because it’s taken so damn long just to get this spreadsheet, and, as soon as he’s done collecting the relevant data, he can go back to doing actual, physical science with his hands. There’s really no point in trying though because Hermann’s already reaching into the box and pulling out a burrito. Oh hell yes.

At this point in their relationship, it’s easy for them to get comfortable together on the couch. The one they have in the lab is just a bit too low that it tends to aggravate Hermann’s hip, so, instead, he reclines across the length of the couch, leaning back against the armrest with Newt’s legs beneath the bend of his knees.

It’s a bit obviously domestic, but it’s actually really functional. No one really tends to come into the lab anyways unless they need something that’s more complex than can be written in a short email, so there’s not too much of a threat of discovery.

“How are you faring?” Hermann asks between crunching bites of his salad.

“I’m fine,” Newt says neutrally and takes a big bite of his burrito. He’s not a hundred percent sure he’s on the same page.

Hermann’s face is unreadable. “I know this job hasn’t ended up being as glamorous for you as you had desired.”

Oh. That. It had taken Newt a few years to get Hermann to pretend to be sympathetic about it, back when they were working in different locations (with Hermann here in Hong Kong and Newt up in Siberia and collaborating over video call). It’s gotten to the point now that Newt can see that Hermann’s actually starting to get it and that he cares if Newt’s getting as much emotionally out of this job as he is.

“It’s hard sometimes,” Newt says, “with the tour groups and all, but thinking about the future helps, about where we’ll be when we finally finish developing this thing.”

“You’re doing important work,” Hermann says seriously, tipping his head forward a bit so he can look at Newt over the rims of his glasses.

“You’re just saying that because all of the work that I do that you have to deal with is physics,” Newt jokes.

Hermann huffs a laugh. “I’m sure I’d still love you even if you were doing you immunology work full time.”

‘Yeah?” Newt asks, grinning. He’s about to lean in to kiss Hermann’s cheek when there’s a knock at the door. He jerks back, nearly dropping his burrito. “I’ll get that,” he says quickly, “I just got to—um—”

“Yes,” Hermann says, drawing his legs in so Newt can get free.

“Thanks.” Newt rewraps his burrito and opens up the lab door, swinging it wider when he realizes who it is. “Tendo!”

“Hey, Newt,” Tendo says, pushing himself into the lab without waiting for an invitation. “I dropped by the mailroom on the way here,” he says, dropping a neat pile into Newt’s free hand. “I saw that you’re sharing a lab with Gottlieb. Still at each other’s throats?”

“Oh, yeah, of course,” Newt says. He’s still more than a little surprised by Tendo’s surprise appearance. “Dude, last time I saw you, you were still in Siberia.”

“Yep,” says Tendo. “They just finished wrapping up construction on the Deep Sea project last month.”

“Nice!” Newt says, shuffling his burrito into the crook of his free arm so he can return Tendo’s incoming high five. “I heard that there were a few unforeseen complications with the satellite communications.”

“Sure,” Tendo replies. "There were, but it wasn't anything that I couldn’t handle.”

“That’s really good to hear, dude,’ Newt says. He shuffles through the mail and drops Hermann’s off on his desk. He glances back at where Hermann is on the couch—they were kind of having a conversation before and he kind of feels bad about dropping it off just like that. Hermann just smiles and makes a shooing motion before turning back to his salad. It helps him feel a little better.

“So, Newt says, “What brings you all the way to Hong Kong?”

“They’re bringing me on to supervise the construction of the time travel project,” Tendo says.

“Already?” Newt asks.

“Why? Still pre-prototype?” Tendo asks.

“We’ve still got about six months of stabilization issues to work out, not to mention the collision problem,” Newt says. “It’d suck to travel all through time and space and run smack bam straight into a satellite.”

“Oof, yeah,” Tendo says. He opens his mouth to say something else, but his phone buzzes. “Whoops,” he says, looking at the screen. “I gotta go. Hey, listen, man, give me a call some time so we can hang out! I missed you, buddy. It’s been too long.”

“Will do,” Newt says. “I’ll see you around.”

“See you,” Tendo says and leaves with a wave.

“So that’s Tendo?” Hermann asks when Newt closes the door and makes his way back over to the couch.

“Yeah,” Newt says. “He was pretty much my only friend up in Siberia. The Kaidonovskys were fun, but we never really clicked, so I ended up handing around Tendo during most of my breaks.”

“I’m the only person you spend time with here,” Hermann points out.

“Maybe so,” Newt says, “but you’re cool, so it’s okay.”

* * *

“Newton,” Hermann says from where he’s stretching the bed, “could you possibly come here and put some pressure on my leg?”

“Mmph,” Newt replies and lodges his toothbrush in the space between his teeth and cheek. He squints at Hermann’s vaguely prone position and taps the leg that’s hanging off the side of the bed.

“Yes,” Hermann says. “That one, please.”

Newt slowly applies pressure until Hermann tells him to stop and then lets up when Hermann’s timer goes up. “Mhh?” he asks.

“That’s it for now,” Hermann says. “Thank you.”

“Hm,” Newt says and goes to spit in the sink and put his glasses back on. “How are you feeling?” he asks when he joins Hermann in bed.

“Better,” Hermann says. “And you? Something’s on your mind. You’ve been quiet for a while.”

“I’m good,” Newt mumbles, sinking down into the pillows a little more. He catches Hermann’s raised eyebrow, and somehow that’s enough to get him talking. “Look,” he says, “I’m really glad Tendo’s back, ‘cause I love the guy to death, and we used to spend a ton of time together, but I’ve gotten used to just me and you, and if he’s around a lot, I’m gonna have to pretend to hate you again, and I won’t be able to spend as much time with you, and it’s just—it’s a lot of work.”

Hermann rests a hand on Newt’s shoulder. “Do you remember back when we were still trying the speed of light approach?” he asks.

“Yeah?” Newt says. He remembers it well. Theoretically, if Hermann could find a way to get their ship moving at light speed, Newt had argued over and over again that he could not reasonably find a way to keep the people alive unless they spent an unreasonably long time building up to it. It just wasn’t efficient. Looping around Earth over and over again just wasn’t controllable or cost-effective. At the time, Newt might have gone a little overboard and suggested they ignore all space travel based methods, basically saying that they start over entirely from scratch.

“If I recall correctly,” Hermann says, a small smile forming on his face, “you called me an ‘uncreative, swagless dingbat’ no less than three times a day for a week.

“True,” Newt replies, “but you might have deserved it a little.”

“Perhaps,” Hermann says, “but only a little. That aside, might I ask you what your relationship status was at the time?”

“I was with you,” Newt says. He shifts his head back a little on the pillow so he can look up at Hermann better. He has this really soft smile on his face that Newt wishes he could see more often, but Hermann only smiles like that when they’re in private.

“We would still come home to each other every night,” Hermann agrees. “We still debate sometimes, Newton, and sometimes we argue. What’s changed is that we tend to listen to each other more, so when we do fight, it’s with less frequency and amplitude. We’ll be ok.”

“Yeah,” Newt says slowly, “yeah, okay.” He pulls a hand out from under the covers and find’s Hermann’s. Hermann’s hand is cold like it usually is, but Newt tends to run warm, so they can balance each other out.

Okay, he thinks. Okay.

**Author's Note:**

> AU Notes because that's all I live for lmao:
> 
> \- Pan Pacific, in this case, is kind of like a cutting edge all purpose scientific company that seeks to expand human capability or whatever. They make cool science things and try to break the laws of physics, kind of like NASA but not just space and occasionally more commercial.  
> \- The time machine is still in fairly early development and they haven't actually built a working model yet, but they are definitely getting somewhere, and they've figured out most of the major problems. The original designs are non-functional and designed by someone else. The current model looks a lot different.  
> \- It theoretically travels through time, but it pops out at the same place, not like the Tardis or the ones in Timeless, but similar to the Delorean.  
> \- The time machine kind of resembles the theoretical SR-91 Aurora aircraft, but with the slightly sleeker, smoother aesthetics that we see in some sci-fi media but black instead of white.  
> \- I wanted to include other characters but I didn't really think it through until I'd already established they were still fairly early on in development, and you can't exactly have people building or flying time machines if there's no solid plans. Tendo was a stretch because they're still at least a year out from first prototype, but you could reason that they wanted to reserve him because he's good at his job. I...think I wrote that in context of the story.  
> \- I don't know why there aren't any security camera in the lab.
> 
>  
> 
> I actually have Another time travel au that actually includes actual time travel and predates both of these stories but it demands a longer story and i only have the concept written down so! that's not going to happen


End file.
